Synopsis
Self-made tells the story of two women who share the same environment on two
extremities of the spectrum.
Efrat is a 40-year-old renowned plastic artist from Jerusalem. One morning, her bed breaks, she falls off and consequently loses her memory. Her husband – a high tech man – is overseas on business, and she is left alone to discover who she is.
Nadine is a 20-year-old Palestinian woman who lives in a refugee camp with her
brother. Her mother is dead and her father is imprisoned in Israel. She longs for a child and a family of her own, and lives inside her imagination, away from the harsh reality
surrounding her. She works in an "IDEA" factory (An IKEA style furniture company),
packing screws in plastic bags.
When Efrat orders a new bed from "IDEA", she receives the parts, but while assembling the bed she discovers that one of the screws is missing. She calls "IDEA" and due to her complaint, Nadine is fired from her job. After the telephone call, Efrat finds the missing screw somewhere around the house.
Nadine's family situation and the dismissal from the factory, brings Omar, a martyr (Shahida) recruiter, to her door step. He's trying to recruit her for a suicide bombing
mission and she falls in love with him. Her brother Yusuf tries to fix her up in vain with
a series of different guys but quickly realizes that his sister is not one to follow the
acceptable social codes and norms. In order to protect her, he decides to send her to Kuwait to live with their aunt. Meanwhile, a foreign camera crew arrives at Efrat's
doorstep. Through her encounter with the journalists she discovers that she's quite
famous, known all around the country as a women's rights defender activist, and that she was chosen by the prestigious "Amazon" magazine as one of the fifty most
influential women of the year. She also finds out that her next piece for the Biennale Art Show is supposed to be a purse made out of her womb.
This horrible revelation makes her realize she lost herself in the fame granted by her artistic persona. She doesn't see any reasoning in continue living.
The day before her womb excision, hopeless Efrat runs away until she reaches the skirt of the city- a military checkpoint. At the same time willful Nadine is stopped at a border checkpoint as she is sent by her brother to an Aunt in Kuwait. A confused soldier sends Efrat to Nadine’s refugee camp and Nadine to Efrat’s house in Jerusalem.
Efrat becomes a Shahid – a martyr – and prepares herself for the death she was hoping for, while Nadine finds the space and the peace necessary to build a family.